The Elemental Arts
by Smaugtheterrible
Summary: Naruto, inspired by the Third Hokage's mastery of elemental release seeks to master his own. In the process creating a martial art style that will catapult him to the top of the Shinobi world.
1. Chapter 1

_Soooo…._ _I was reading 'outfoxed' and I came upon a wondrous concept, the idea of using nature releases as attacks. I didn't really occur to me that Naruto was literally cutting a waterfall in two with nothing but a wind nature release, and then I thought a little further and realized just how deadly a martial art based around elemental releases would be. And so with out further ado._

 ** _The elemental Arts_**

"Get the hell out you damn-demon brat!"

A six year Naruto yelped as he slid painfully across the rock strewn ground. The Chunin with arms still outstretched from launching the blond child out the double doors. The ninja sneered and yelled, catching the attention of many passerby's who as soon as they saw who was being yelled at, turned away, with muttering of 'demon', 'evil brat', and 'bout time', all ignoring the quivering Naruto, still reviewing an earful from the ninja who was starting to enjoy the feeling of support he was getting.

"-And if I ever catch you trying to sneak into the library again, I won't just stop at chucking you out! Ill make sure to leave you with a few kunai sticking out of some inconvenient places, ya get me brat?!"

The blond nodded shakily before darting into a nearby alleyway.

Coincidentally and because the author has declared it must be so for story progression, it just happened to be an alley where the library through out its older books…

 _Scene Break_

The blond was mumbling to himself as he dug through the trash, occasionally tossing out various scrolls with a 'useless', 'to many words', 'too few pictures', 'too _many_ pictures', before Naruto finally cried out in joy as he dicovreverd the scroll that he had been searching for.

A scroll with the steps for elemental manipulation detailed in a simple, step by step process, and on the back was a dirty, torn, and ragged chakra paper.

A shiver was felt up the back of a young Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuga, and Kiba Inuzuka, it felt like someone had started dancing on their graves as in a corner of the village, Naruto began laughing maniacally as he read, eventually scuttling back to the dingy apartment he called home to train, his saddled feet silent as he avoided any interaction in his rush.

As he closed his new, and rather sturdy wood and steel reinforced door closed, he remembered exactly how he had gotten so interest in the exercises for master elemental release in the first place.

It had been almost sixth months ago, and a large group of ninja, mostly Chunin, with the odd Gennin and Jonin surrounding his house as he quivered inside. Thankfully, it had been on one of the days that the Hokage had decided to visit him, he had come along with couple bowls of ramen, arriving right as one of the Chunin kicked down his flimsy wooden door,

The hokage had set down the bag with the ramen bowls before flashing through hand signs, spamming jutsus that had Naruto watching in awe as the lighting crackled, fire flared, and duplicates of both weapons and men whistled and screamed through the air.

In the end Sarutobi gently picked up the two takeout bowls of Ramen and walked inside, and spoke, and laughed, and did everything in his power to distract Naruto as the bodies were quickly and quietly removed for an anonymous burial.

But now, with these instructions and a chakra paper, Naruto would be able to master elemental release, and he would try, he would work until he did so, until he had mastered to the highest level possible.

He would do it.

And he would never be weak again.

 _Scene Break_

Naruto let out a calm breath as he focused on the leaf in his hand, he had been at this for months, trying to cut the leaf in two, his chakra paper had said that his chakra nature was wind, supposedly something that made the leaf cutting technique easier was mediation.

So. Why. COULDN'T. HE. DO. THIS!

He was about to throw the leaf away when suddenly he felt a gust of wind erupt from his palm, shredding the leaf into a dozen pieces.

Naruto stared at the leaf for a few moments before screaming in success. He frantically raced to his bedroom where the nature release scroll was enshrined to see what the next step was.

He paused as he looked at it.

Tree cutting? Huh…. If it had taken him two months to figure out _leaf_ cutting, how long would it take to cut an entire _tree?_

Naruto slumped.

 _Time Skip_

It had been just over a year since he completed leaf splitting. He had completed the tree cutting in actually the same time that he had completed leaf splitting, it had seemed that the hardest part of chakra manipulation had been actually forcing it out of his body.

Well, he had thought that until he caught to waterfall cutting, he had stalled completely and utterly. He had just a matter of months until he entered the academy, and he knew he had to complete the waterfall splitting exercise before he entered the academy.

Which in turn explains why he was panting on his hands and knees before a 12 ft waterfall that was stinging him with needle like droplets.

Naruto marshaled himself for one last try, swaying to his feet like he was drunk, he brought his hands to the waterfall and focused.

He forced his chakra out in an unceasing blade of wind that stopped the waterfall, and he held it, and held it, he split the waterfall, but then his vision swam, stars flying across his vision like comets as he fainted.

Naruto woke to find himself in a sewer.

One end of the sewer just seemed to continue on, into the distance, the other was a set of prison bars in a cell so huge that the young Naruto couldn't see the top. Naruto let out an involuntary yelp as a massively shadowed figure shifted, and a scarlet orb, an eye larger then the frightened child in front of him blinked open.

 **"** **At Last, my jailer comes to visit… How,** ** _wonderful._** **"**

 _Finis_


	2. Chapter 2

_The Elemental Arts part 2_

Naruto stared in stupefied awe at the gargantuan figure in front of him. It growled at him in distaste at Naruto's dumbfounded expression, the sound rubbing in Naruto's bones like an avalanche. Naruto's mouth closed and opened a few times before he finally managed to squeeze out a question in a still awed tone.

"What in Kami's name are you?"

The voice that responded was so loud and deep, it felt like it was vibrating Naruto's teeth.

 **"Cant you tell?** "

The figure shifted its bulk closer towards the sewer bars. Naruto gasped again as the scarlet furred figure was slowly reveled, paws the size of a house, a curling, twisting tail that could have passed for a furry version of Kohona's border wall…. And bunny ears?

Naruto belatedly rallied that he had said that last bit out loud when a roar blasted his hair back.  
The giant fox creature growled.

 **"Not bunny ears."**

Naruto cocked his head.

"So why is the Kyubi No Kitsune in Kohona's sewers?" The bunny eared head tilted, if the fox had been smaller. Say knee high, the humongous head giving the impression of confused adorableness would have been apparent.

 **"So you know who I am?"**

Naruto shrugged.

"Unless theres another gigantic, scarlet furred, nine tailed fox?"

The fox… Chuckled? A deep throated rumble that rattled the sewer, grate.

"I do have one question though, what the hell is the Nine-tails doing in a Kohona sewer?"

The foxes upper lip pulled away, revealing a row of pointed, ivory, fangs.

 **"We are not in a sewer Ningen (human), we are inside your mind."**

Naruto raised one doubtful eyebrow.

"And I have the Kyubi inside my mind?"

The foxes lips curled away from his teeth in a animalistic interpretation of a smile.

 **"You seem very calm about all of this."**

"I think Im just in shock and the freak out will come later."

The fox snorted again as its tails coiled like snakes behind him, blowing the warm and wet air that fell thick in Naruto's nose who sneezed, Naruto wrinkled his nose slightly in distaste.

"You never answered my question, how are you in my mind?"

 **"Have you ever head of the term 'power of the human sacrifice?'"**

Naruto paused, his mind began racing, he had read that it was term he had read about in history books while he had been searching for information on elemental chakra. Tailed beasts like the creature in front of him being sealed into humans in order to harness their unbelievable power.

 **"I have… But I thought that you were destroyed by the 4th Hokage?"**

The fox growled again.

 **"You think a human can destroy the most powerful of 9 sentient chakra engines?"**

The fox came to its feet, showing how truly prodigious of a creature the nineties was, its chakra flaring into an oppressive shroud that crashed against the bars of its cage, breaking like waves against a rock.

 **"YOU THINK A MERE HUMAN COULD DESTROY THIS?!"**

Naruto frantically shook his head as the pure malice and hate swirled around him, rocking his body and grasping his heart with a malignant grasp that left Naruto gasping.

The fox flopped back down with a thunderous crash.

"The fourth Hokage sealed me into you with the assistance of his wife. The fourth used a seal that cost him his life, while his wife stepped between you and a well deserved claw before they managed to seal me into you."

"So they sealed you into me? Why? And why would the fourths wife sacrifice herself for me?"

There was a pregnant pause as the Kyubi considered its next words carefully.

 **"I was forced to attack Kohona by a masked Uchiha, they did the only thing they knew could stop me, as far as why Kushina would sacrifice I wont tell you that until you make Genin."**

Naruto glared at the huge fox balefully, his eyes becoming, hard, blue chips of ice.

"You know who my parents are? The Hokage always refused to tell me."  
The fox shrugged.

 **"And I just don't care. But if you want, I will tell you who your mother when you reach Genin, and your father when you reach Chunin. Once you know who they are you will be able to get stronger by claiming your inheritance."**

The fox bared its teeth again and growled.

 **"And make no mistake, making sure you don't die and take me with you is the only thing I care about."**

"Fine. Now why did you drag me here?"

The fox shrugged its massive shoulders.

 **"I brought you here to tell you a few things, firstly, I am actually… Impressed…. By how far you have come in mastering your elemental release at your young age."**

The Kyubi made a face as continued speaking as though disgusted that he to admit being impressed by a human.

 **"But, you have focused in your entirety on your elemental release, neglecting any of your other skills, including your ninjutsu and Taijutsu."** Naruto frowned.

"What should I do then? Ive just managed to figure out the waterfall cutting exercise, I haven't really had the chance to do anything else."

The fox, despite having no eyebrows still managed to give off the impression of raising one skeptical and shaggy eyebrow.

 **"Really? What about incorporating your elemental release into your taijustsu?"**

Naruto's mouth opened.

Naruto's mouth closed.

This continued on for several moments as several gargled sounds escaped out of the Childs mouth.

"B-but, that wouldn't work… Would it?"  
The fox sweat dropped slightly.

 **"Why wouldn't it?"**

Naruto frowned as he tried to figure it out. As far as he could tell the only reason that it might not work was the concentration needed to convert chakra into its wind nature. The limits in combat meant he would have to be able to expel and channel wind based chakra in an instant rather the the couple of seconds he could do it in now.

Eventually Naruto just had to shake his head. He couldn't think of a single reason why it wouldn't work. He also couldn't think of a reason why he hadn't figured it out.

Finally he huffed, irritated that he had needed the fox to figure it out.

"So I should learn taijustsu, but who would even teach me? In case you couldn't guess Im not exactly the most popular person."

The Kyubbi growled contemplatively. The blond had a point. From what he had gleaned by watching through the blonds eyes on the rare occasion he could be bothered to actually wake up and pay attention was that blond spawn latest in the liner of jailers he had been within was almost universally hate within his village. It would be rather hard to learn if he was to busy dodging sharp pointy metal bits all the time…. Just then it occurred to the Kyubi, someone who would teach the Ningen even if he was sealed in the idiots gut.

The sheer horrified looks when he learned of the spandex and the terror inducing screams of 'Youth' would just be bonus entertainment.

The giant fox turned to regard the blond midget fully with two scarlet eyes. Keeping his snickering to himself as he spoke.

 **"Oi Ningen, if you want to learn Taijutsu from a master, go to your Hokage-Jisan and ask him to introduce you to Might Gai."**

 _Finis_


End file.
